In discussion with CNN’s Manu Raju, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — currently finishing his last term in office, having announced a retirement — blasted ex-President Donald Trump for clamoring against a prospective border deal in Congress.
One idea is that moving forward on what could end up effectively a border win could take the wind out of the Trump campaign’s rhetorical sails as the former president characteristically continues leaning on the border for his campaign pitch. While Republicans have lied about conditions there, describing an “invasion” where there’s no such thing, real-world opportunities for action remain present, including in going after the dangerous drug fentanyl and in improving conditions for migrating individuals seeking asylum in the United States — a legally protected process.
Whatever the claimed reasons accompanying it, Trump has, in fact, reached out to Republicans in Congress in opposition to the border negotiations in the Senate as they’ve taken shape.
“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump,” Romney told journalists in D.C. “And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling. […] Someone running for president ought to try and get the problem solved as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, save that problem. Don’t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later.'”
Other rhetoric suggesting that motivation came from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who said at a recent press conference that he wasn’t inclined towards presently pursuing any “comprehensive” border reform at all. (He also rejected the possibility of $14 billion proposed by the Biden admin that would expand operations, including with new hiring in border enforcement.) The obviously looming possibilities for political change in the near future include a Trump presidency, and Johnson is such a Trump ally that he helped push attempts after the last presidential race to challenge the results as they stood despite no real-world evidence of extensive wrongdoing.
